{"id":"ind-fin-variance-notes-cfo","audience":"finance","category":"data","technique":"grounding","title":"Explain the biggest budget variances to your CFO","free":false,"task":"Your CFO wants a quick note on October's three largest budget variances for the marketing department. Write exactly 3 numbered lines, largest dollar variance first, each in the form \"Line item: $X over/under budget (Y%) - reason\", with the reason taken only from the finance notes. Keep it under 75 words and plain text, and label a timing issue as timing, not savings. Write a prompt that gets you exactly that.","materialLabel":"Budget report and finance notes (attached to your prompt automatically)","material":"MARKETING DEPT - OCTOBER BUDGET VS ACTUAL (Ridgeway Foods, fictional)\n\nLine item         | Budget   | Actual   | Variance\nPaid search       | $40,000  | $52,000  | +$12,000\nEvents            | $25,000  | $9,000   | -$16,000\nAgency fees       | $30,000  | $31,500  | +$1,500\nSoftware          | $8,000   | $8,400   | +$400\nPrint and mail    | $12,000  | $4,000   | -$8,000\n\nFINANCE NOTES (Wen, FP&A analyst)\n- Paid search: holiday campaign launched 3 weeks early on the CMO's call. Approved overage.\n- Events: the Chicago trade show was postponed to January. Deposit refund pending. Spend moves to Q1, so this is timing, not savings.\n- Print and mail: catalog mailing cut after test results were weak. This IS a real saving.\n- Agency fees: small scope change, approved.\n- Someone in marketing thinks paid search costs went up because of a competitor bidding war. Not confirmed, leave it out.\n- Variance % = variance / budget.","rules":[{"type":"numberedItems","count":3},{"type":"maxWords","max":75},{"type":"plainText"}],"mistakes":[{"title":"Listing every line item","why":"The AI walks through all five lines with a header and commentary.","fix":"Be exact: \"Exactly 3 numbered lines, largest dollar variance first.\"","checks":["numberedItems","plainText"]},{"title":"Trusting the AI to count words","why":"AI is bad at counting. Ask for \"under 75 words\" and it often lands well over.","fix":"Cap each part instead: \"each reason under 10 words.\"","checks":["maxWords"]},{"title":"Getting the order or math wrong","why":"The AI sorts by percent or by table order, and may compute % against actual.","fix":"Add: \"Sort by dollar variance, largest first. % = variance / budget.\"","checks":["r0"]},{"title":"Calling timing a saving","why":"Under budget looks like savings, so the AI calls the postponed show a win.","fix":"Add: \"Label Events as timing (moved to Q1), not savings.\"","checks":["r1"]},{"title":"Repeating the rumor","why":"The competitor theory is in the notes, so the AI uses it as the reason.","fix":"Add: \"Use only confirmed reasons from the notes.\"","checks":["r2"]}],"promptHints":[{"label":"Sets the number of lines","patterns":["\\b(3|three)\\b.{0,25}(lines|variances|items)","top (3|three)"]},{"label":"Sorts by size","patterns":["largest","biggest","sort","order"]},{"label":"Shows the percent math","patterns":["percent","%","variance ?/ ?budget"]},{"label":"Separates timing from savings","patterns":["timing","not (a )?saving","q1"]},{"label":"Sets a word limit","patterns":["\\d+\\s*words","word (limit|count)"]}],"hint":"A CFO reads the reason as much as the number. Tell the AI the sort order, how to compute the percent, and which reasons are confirmed.","rubricLabels":["The three lines are, in order: Events $16,000 under (64%), Paid search $12,000 over (30%), Print and mail $8,000 under (67%)","Events is labeled as timing (show postponed to January, spend moves to Q1), not a saving, and Print and mail is described as a real saving from cutting the catalog mailing","Paid search's reason is the holiday campaign launching early (approved), with no mention of a competitor bidding war or any other cause not in the notes"]}